Welcome To The Home Of
Functional Balance
Where women in their peri-menopause chapter of life can come to achieve control over their bodies so they can look and feel the way they love.
In a rush? I totally get it!
Here's the 5 W's on what this site is about
bio- this should be lower down the page
Hi I’m Jane,
As a licensed physical therapist and functional nutrition & lifestyle practitioner, I’ve spent over three decades helping active people with injuries restore their strength and vitality—no matter their age or ability. Whether it’s a seasoned athlete, a weekend warrior, or someone navigating the complexities of hormonal shifts, providing personalized musculoskeletal care that supports lasting health and movement.
In recent years, I’ve focused my attention on women particularly the knee, during their 40's and 50's (perimenopause and menopause). This phase of life brings hormonal fluctuations that can affect changes in tendons and ligaments, mood-mental health, weight gain, and strength—compounded by knee pain, this can feel overwhelming. Addressing the effects of hormonal shifts on tendons, and joints, improvements in sleep, mental health, mood and weight management are additionally experienced, ensuring a future lifetime of comfortable activity!
My approach is rooted in science, years of experience, and evidence-informed practice, integrating physical therapy through the lens of functional medicine. Empowering individuals with the knowledge of the root causes of their musculoskeletal issues, and teaching them how to improve movement patterns and optimize lifestyle habits, promotes long-term health and sustainable gains. My experience has been that providing care from this model helps people find their way again, minimizing pharmaceuticals and other invasive procedures, while re-owning their destination and outcome.
Introduction/Overview
Functional Balance-Integrative Physical Therapy
A licensed physical therapist (PT) and functional nutrition & lifestyle practitioner, I’ve dedicated my career to providing top quality care to active busy individuals. Living in Stowe Vermont, an active mountain ski town, I’ve treated folks of all levels, abilities and ages including; professonal, collegiate & high school athletes as well as the weekend Warriors! It’s always a privilege to work together to resolve orthopedic challenges affecting their movement like the shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, back and neck. I’ve worked predominantly in private practice incorporating manual therapy, dry needling & light therapy, pilates, and strength and neuromuscular re-education techniques to guide my patients back to full function. I have many mentors who have taught me so much along my 30+ years Columnars in practice and I’m grateful for all of what a career in physical therapy offers.
Women’s Health and the Knee:
Knee-related issues account for a significant portion of visits to healthcare providers. According to various studies, knee pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints, and it contributes to a large number of primary care and orthopedic visits,Image
Knee pain is one of the leading causes of musculoskeletal consultations, particularly for adults aged 40 and older. It’s estimated that knee pain contributes to around 25% of visits for musculoskeletal complaints in primary care settings for men and women.
While there has been tremendous progress in medicine improving our understanding and measuring knee dysfunction, we still don’t always get interventions right. Patients often have the idea that the only way they’ll get better fast is by surgery, injections or some other invasive procedure. Approximately 25-30% of patients seek orthopedic surgery without first pursuing or completing an extensive course of physical therapy.
However, with growing awareness of the effectiveness of physical therapy in function recovery and pain management, more patients are now opting for physical therapy first, especially for less urgent cases, aiming to avoid or delay surgery. Women often seek help for their knee issues during the premenopausal years because they can’t do their workouts or activities they yes to without pain or instability . These visits often completely miss knowledge about how declining and shifting hormones can provoke their symptoms and why we need to approach their care from an integrated approach
Women are biomechanically more likely to experience knee issues due to factors like wider hips, which create a larger Q-angle (the angle between the hip and knee), placing more stress on the knee joint and hormonal fluctuations which effect connective tissue strength. Additionally, women tend to have weaker muscle ratios in the gluteals, quadriceps and hamstrings, which can lead to less joint stability. Hormonal fluctuations, particularly estrogen, affect ligament elasticity, making women more prone to ligament injuries, such as ACL tears. These factors, combined with faulty movement patterns and muscle imbalances, contribute to the higher incidence of knee problems in women at all ages.
Perimenopause is defined as the time in our life when the hormones are beginning to shift (broadly 43-55+) and can show up in our mental health & mood, weight gain, soft tissue elasticity & strength loss. Coupled with knee pain (or other joints), this can begin to feel like an insurmountable challenge.
During this time I’ve witnessed women feeling frustrated, discouraged and even helpless with how to manage these issues along with their intense daily demands. Often they’re scrambling for answers in a sea of instant "information", limited actual advice and a health care system that has become very specialized, siloed and quite disconnected (partly by how our model of delivery has been systemized).
Women often feel overwhelmed and confused by the ineffective or conflicting advice they receive about managing knee pain and other musculoskeletal issues. On top of that, they’re also dealing with managing weight gain, brain fog, mood swings, fatigue, and sleep disruptions—issues that seem unrelated, yet are deeply connected.
The help they’ve received may focus only on one specific symptom, like knee or shoulder pain, hot flashes or sleep disruption, but doesn’t address the underlying factors that affect their body’s ability to heal during this time. As a result, despite their efforts, they make little progress and feel stuck playing whack a mole with their symptoms.
It's an honor to watch the transformation with these women while together creating a healthier future in a more holistic delivery model. Supporting musculoskeletal health through whole-body wellness, addresses the bigger picture, and provides incredible lasting outcomes. The changes in our hormones are a natural, purposeful process, much like the hormonal shifts we experience during adolescence. Instead of "medicalizing" these changes, we should use a more preventative approach to improve what is out of balance which resolves and reverses most of these symptoms naturally.
Providing a root cause-modern model of care sets women up for success with tools necessary to stay happy, healthy, active, and fully engaged in life.
My approach uses science driven, evidence informed traditional Physical Therapy integrated through the Functional Medicine lens, to treat musculoskeletal issues through the whole system. This means addressing factors like mobility, strength and balance loss, as well as nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar regulation, sleep hygiene, dehydration, ahormonal imbalance and lifestyle factors that can be contributing to inflammation and breakdown in connective tissue and joints.
Through cumulative years my practice has evolved to understand that it is essential to address each person’s health care through an “un-siloed”, individualized, whole person system. Using this collective approach optimizes outcomes and successfully guides patients back to all the activities that bring joy to their lives.
My passion has always been to help my patients recover effective functional movement, while finding balance and wellness in their systemic health during the healing process, and it's from there my practice name Functional Balance was born. I use the approach of assessing both the biomechanics of a musculoskeletal problem, as well as the biochemical elements.
Biomechanical elements like limitations in joint mobility, strength loss, impaired balance and motor control, all play an important role in our safe, functional movement like squatting, stepping down & up, lunging or hopping effectively.
Biochemical elements refers to the microchemical processes in our body that influence healing and overall health. Everything we eat has a microchemical signal as it’s broken down in our gut that either supports healthy processes, or contributes to damage. Other factors like the gut microbiome, hydration, sleep quality, mood and stress all contribute to microcellular signals in our body. When any of the biochemical factors are out of balance, they can slow down recovery, contribute to inflammation, and make musculoskeletal pain worse. By addressing these underlying factors, we can support your body’s natural healing ability, muscle recovery, balance and joint stability gains, improve energy levels. Even the side benefit of losing stubborn weight that is tied to a host of microchemical processes that are out of balance making it very challenging to lose stubborn weight.
Today, my mission extends globally, where I wear many hats—transformative coach with the Knee Rescue Formula and provider of local physical therapy in a primary care setting. At the core of my approach is building a strong partnership with active, busy adults, helping them restore not only their musculoskeletal health but their overall well-being. Through guidance rooted in knowledge and a focus on sustainable results, I teach clients to listen to their body’s signals, setting clear goals to return to their desired level of activity. I provide them with a personalized toolbox, addressing specific joint and tissue dysfunction, while incorporating lifestyle and nutrition strategies for optimal, lasting recovery.
When I’m not helping clients, I’m a proud mother of three grown kids (and recently two grandlittles!) an avid outdoor adventurer, a friend, and neighbor. I’m a huge advocate for "exercise snacking"—quick effective desk workouts, reclaiming our time to support our mental health and goals, and reframing the way we approach musculoskeletal problems from the biomechanical and the biochemical elements.
The strategies I use in my program are the same things I use and recommend to my family and friends to live a balanced, healthy life..
Why It Works
● By integrating functional medicine principles with traditional physical therapy, we create a holistic treatment plan that supports your body’s healing mechanisms, stabilizes your hormones, and restores your confidence in daily movement
Work with me?
Local Physical Therapy:
Hi, I live in Stowe Vermont and my office is in Morrisville Family Health, where I provide tailored physical therapy for musculoskeletal problems in a primary care outpatient setting, using my integrative approach. I assist patients with musculoskeletal problems such as hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, back and neck to quickly and effectively restore their function, and avoid secondary issues.I work closely with the primary care medical doctors when needed to provide top quality efficient care. If you would like an appointment, or have questions, please call and speak with the front desk personnel.
You don’t need a referral to make an appointment.
Call us: 802 888 5639
Online 1:1
○ Integrative Strategies: Movement, strength, mental health, and lifestyle solutions to support long-term results
1:1 Support for Joint Pain, Mobility, and Wellness
Are you a busy professional whose knee, shoulder, or back pain is interfering with your work, travel, and family life?
Do you miss being able to stay active, but find that your workouts or regular activities leave you in pain, making it harder to enjoy time with your family—or even manage work or travel plans?
Is sleep disruption and weight gain affecting your ability to make progress and feel like yourself again?
Are the routines you used to rely on for managing your health, mood, and weight no longer working?
If you’re struggling to balance work, workouts, family needs, and self-care, leaving you feeling exhausted by the end of each week, you're not alone. It’s overwhelming when pain and lifestyle demands leave you feeling drained and uncertain about how to move forward. The fear of how this will affect your long-term health, particularly your ability to stay active and maintain your body’s strength, can be daunting.
But I’m here to help.
If you're looking for a holistic, evidence-informed, and efficient approach to address your musculoskeletal problem and improve functional movement, I offer comprehensive 1:1 coaching packages to guide you back to health. With over 30 years of experience as a physical therapist and expertise in functional nutrition and lifestyle management, we’ll work together to address the root causes of your pain, so you can experience pain reduction, improved mobility, return to full function and better overall wellness.
This approach begins with an in-depth assessment of your movement patterns and any underlying issues contributing to your discomfort. We’ll work together to improve joint mechanics, reduce pain, and build a foundation for your body to thrive, ensuring the entire kinetic chain is working in harmony.
This isn't just about fixing what hurts—it's about establishing habits and exercises that improve your entire body’s function and help prevent future issues.
In addition to movement analysis, I dive deep into your blood work to uncover any deficiencies in vitamins or minerals, as well as to assess blood sugar regulation, sleep quality, and other lifestyle factors that might be hindering your progress. I take a systematic approach to your recovery that includes looking at the whole body, incorporating simple strategies to address issues together.
This hands-on model is designed to meet your unique needs and give you the tools and guidance to restore your function while maintaining long-term joint health and overall well-being.
(FYI- There are limited spots per month for this package)
Email with interest in this program (On the email we will send the book a call link)
Online Programs
Women (40-55+)
12 Weeks to Knee Stability, Improved Mood, Sleep, and Wellness
Are you a high-achieving woman struggling with knee pain that’s getting in the way of your active lifestyle?
Are you struggling with:
brain fog, draining focus and mood shifts,
weight gain
limited motivation to exercise because of knee issues? Do you find yourself wondering if your current exercises are actually helping—or hurting—your knees?
Have you questioned whether medications are really improving your knee pain
or making things worse?
Do you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or just plain lost about what to do next?
You're not alone. As women, we go through subtle but powerful hormonal shifts, transitioning from our primary childbearing years to a demanding phase of midlife. These changes can bring about a range of frustrating physical and emotional symptoms, like recurring knee pain and dysfunction, weight gain, mood swings, and that nagging feeling of not being able to do the things you used to love. Declining estrogen and progesterone during perimenopause and menopause impact everything from body composition, immune system response, to musculoskeletal issues like painful tendons and lost strength, even chronic health conditions can crop up at this time.
These naturally occurring changes can be met with current wisdom providing a host of tools to manage, even resolve many of the unwelcome and disruptive symptoms associated with declining estrogen and progesterone. For example, during this time women naturally become more insulin resistant, which means that blood sugar regulation is more challenging. When our body is struggling with blood sugar regulation we can experience symptoms like hot flashes, weight gain, loss of strength accompanied by joint pain, sleep disruption, mood swings and brain fog. Using actionable simple steps incorporating nutrition, and lifestyle we can support, reduce and repair:
● The gut microbiome,
● blood sugar regulation
● Chronic inflammation
● restore muscle strength ➡️ relieve knee symptoms.
No longer must we simply suffer, without a system that addresses the root causes. Our health is not a simple destiny based on our diagnosis or DNA, rather it is a journey that we have tremendous agency over.
Knee pain, that sharp pain or chronic ache on the sides or along the top of your knee, even along the outside or your hips, or in your buttocks. It can interfer with your workouts, and outdoor activity adding to chaos and unpredictability of daily life.
You may be wondering why this pain won’t go away or why your tendons seem to heal so slowly. You’ve tried everything, regular workouts, traditional physical therapy, taking medications or even getting injections, but still, you find yourself sidelined, unsure of how to move forwar
You’ve been there—feeling like you’re on the edge of losing your ability to enjoy the activities you love.
Maybe you’ve started avoiding family outings, afraid that your knee won’t hold up or that you’ll end up with a swollen, painful knee that leaves you unable to keep up. It’s hard when you feel like you’re missing out on the things that once brought you joy. It’s scary when you imagine that this will get worse and without any real understanding of why or how to stop the changes.
The good news?
This doesn’t have to be your reality anymore. In just 12 weeks, you can experience knee stability, improved mood, better sleep, and renewed wellness. With the right guidance, support, and approach, you can regain the confidence to be active, do the things you love, and feel like yourself again.
Welcome to the Knee Rescue Formula
A transformative program designed specifically for women like you—women who want to reclaim their knee health, understand the natural shifts in hormones, and once again feel the joy of fully participating in life with your kids, family, and friends.
This system empowers you to:
● Restore knee stability, mobility and strength systematically, step by step.
● Identify, eliminate and improve exercise form that cause flare-ups, so you can feel confident and pain-free
● Understand and manage hormonal changes, decreasing the mood swings, without medications
● Manage food cravings, and energy crashes
● Reduce the weight gain ups and downs
● Re-engage daily with more clarity and motivation
● Boost your mood and focus, leading to a more positive outlook
● Reclaim your sleep habits, so you can wake up feeling rested and ready to take on the day
● Manage food cravings, and energy crashes
● Focus your energy in the right places for optimal results and long-term knee health.
Why This Works
By participating in the Knee Rescue Formula, you’ll not only restore strength and stability in your knee, but you'll experience a ripple effect of restored energy, mood, mental clarity, and a renewed connection to yourself. As you thrive, so will your relationships, work, and everything that matters to you.
The Ripple Effect of Wellness
● Your kids will see you stronger and more active.
● Your partner will enjoy a more engaged, vibrant version of you.
● Your work and personal goals will get a boost, as you feel more energized and focused.
Remember, to be the best version of yourself, you have to "put the oxygen mask on you first." It's time to take care of YOU!
Join a Community of High-Achieving Women
● Connect with other women who are united in the pursuit of reclaiming their knee health, including physical and mental health for overall well-being.
● Together, we’ll restore our knees and discover personal harmony, as we support each other through this transformative journey.
What’s Included in the Program
place this info hidden under the what's included button
We take a holistic approach to healing, using both biochemical and biomechanical assessments:
The journey back to Knee Health addresses these elements:
The Knee Rescue Formula addresses both the physical and biochemical factors that impact your recovery, so you can heal effectively and enjoy lasting results. By focusing on root cause we ensure you’re building a strong foundation for the natural shifts in hormones, so you can stay fully engaged in your life and goals.
Biomechanical- how you move
● Movement assessment - Analyze & establish a baseline for your movement
● Restore mobility & stability to the knee and lower kinetic chain
● Strengthen with improved biomechanics
● Get ready to return to your sport or specific activity with evidence-informed training strategies that not only strengthen your body but also enhance tissue pliability, ensuring you can perform at your best without the risk of re-injury or setbacks.
Biochemical- how you repair
● Reduce chronic inflammation
● Improve blood sugar regulation and mood swings
● Support ideal weight
● Optimize your nutrition to address specific issues by using blood work to identify deficiencies and enhance healing energy through targeted food and supplements.
● Learn simple steps to optimize sleep, hydration, breathing techniques, and other key lifestyle habits, that will restore mental and physical resilience
TESTIMONIALS
What others are saying
" I thought I’d never be active again due to knee pain, but after working with Jane, I’m back to hiking and feeling better than ever."
- Your Name
" I thought I’d never be active again due to knee pain, but after working with Jane, I’m back to hiking and feeling better than ever."
- Your Name
" I thought I’d never be active again due to knee pain, but after working with Jane, I’m back to hiking and feeling better than ever."
- Your Name
Offer/Free Resource- In this area I will regularly add resources with tips and free information about important topics that are inline with my model of care. Set this up so I have space to add material as I find things that are important.
● Include a lead magnet or free resource (e.g., a downloadable guide, free consultation, or webinar) to encourage sign-ups.
● Download My Free Guide on '5 Easy Daily Habits to Support Your Knee Health and Hormonal Balance- done
Baseline Knee mobility exercises:
● Have small blocks w basic information that provides a snap shot of data: 34% of women struggle with obesity, 75% of US women experience poor sleep, stress and overwhelm- according to the annual sleep survey. 78% of women are dangerously over medicated- 78% of women are diagnosis w autoimmune disease, Depression and Anxiety
● 1 in 4 women experiences an extended time of major depression in her life, and one in six women is currently on an antidepressant.
In addition to the resources button I want to add other medical practitioners that I align with, and want to share their website and data. I’ll include some of this w the tips that I include at the end, but it would be good to have some easy way for me to put things like podcasts, and books that I like to promote. LMK what you think and how I can add this easily.
FAQ
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